1. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to optical switching test protocols. More particularly, the invention relates to an automatic statistical test sequence generator and methods thereof consistent with TL1 test.
2. Description of Relevant Art
A telecommunications management network (TMN) agent is an application that runs on a network element (NE) that provides one or more management systems the ability to manage the NE. An embedded TMN agent is used to manage a telecommunications device that uses a real-time operating system (RTOS). The role of a TMN agent application is to provide one or more management systems the ability to manage an NE. An embedded TMN agent resides on a board that controls a shelf or shelves in an equipment rack that makes up an NE. These boards are often referred to as shelf control units (SCUs) or management processing units (MPUs). The agent runs in an RTOS. This special operating system is small, fast, and inexpensive in large quantities, which makes it ideal for telecommunications equipment. The agent running in the SCU performs management functions on the rest of the boards in the rack. The agent receives the management requests from a manager application, which typically resides on a remote system.
The manager and agent applications communicate using common management information protocol (CMIP) over an open systems interconnection (OSI) protocol stack. OSI, embraced by TMN recommendations, is a standard way for two applications to communicate across the network. CMIP is an object-oriented protocol for management also embraced by TMN recommendations. CMIP over an OSI stack is the TMN standard for communication between manager and agent.
Management systems access telecommunications equipment to perform a variety of management functions on the device. These functions are known in the telecommunications world as operations, administration, maintenance, and provisioning (OAMandP). In the TMN framework, these are broken down into five primary management functions: configuration management, fault management, performance management, accounting management, and security management.
TMN is a standard way to manage a telecommunications network. But many telecommunications equipment manufacturers still use proprietary or region-specific network management agents, such as transaction language 1 (TL1 ). TL1 language is a Bellcore standardized command set that provides OAMandP functionalities for telecommunication equipment. From a testing perspective, verification of TL1 functionality has traditionally been focused on the command syntax and the proper operation of individual TL1 commands. However, experience has shown that tests, conducted in this manner are insufficient to guarantee the quality of the software. Each TL1 command may work flawlessly when executed individually, but the system may react differently or even experience failure depending on the commands selected and/or the order in which they are executed. For example, different users may experience or perceive a different level of quality of the same system based upon their particular conditions of use. A casual user, for example, may never experience any problem whereas a power user who touches on various aspects of the system may experience substantial problems due to the complex interaction with the system.
In addition, during a check out phase of product development, information on how a particular system is used by an end user may not be readily available until some time after the product is released. In order to minimize verification escapes (i.e., undetected failure modes), designers will try to anticipate all reasonably likely operational scenarios. However, in order to provide anything even closely resembling 100% test coverage would be prohibitively expensive in time and capital.
Unfortunately, however, there is currently no schema for creating a sequence of TL1 commands that closely resemble the way in which a customer would in fact use the system or would provide test coverage sufficient to assure what would be considered in the art as a fully tested product.
Therefore what is desired is a tool for automatically generating a TL1 command sequence that soaks a system (i.e.; fully testing in a variety of operational scenarios) as part of a QA verification process.
In the described embodiment, A statistical test tool for operational testing of a system under test (SUT) is described. The test tool includes a user specific usage model generator arranged to provide a statistically accurate user specific usage model based upon a particular user profile and a translator coupled to the usage model generator arranged to expand the usage model provided the by the usage model generator into a fully meshed file. The test tool also includes a sequence generator coupled to the translator that uses the fully meshed file to automatically generate a random sequence of commands.
In a preferred embodiment, the test tool is a TL1 test tool.
In another embodiment, a method for providing a statistical test tool for operational testing of a system under test (SUT) is described. A statistically accurate user specific usage model based upon a particular user profile is provided. The usage model provided the by the usage model generator is expanded into a fully meshed file and a random sequence of commands based upon the fully meshed model is automatically generated.
In yet another embodiment, an apparatus for providing a statistical test tool for operational testing of a system under test (SUT). The apparatus includes means for providing a statistically accurate user specific usage model based upon a particular user profile, means for expanding the usage model provided the by the usage model generator into a fully meshed file, and means for automatically generating a random sequence of commands based upon the fully meshed model.
In still another embodiment of the invention, a system for automatically providing a TL1 based statistical test sequence to a system under test (SUT) is described. In the described embodiment, the system includes a TL1 usage model generator arranged to provide a statistically accurate usage model based upon a particular user profile. The TL1 usage model generator is connected to a translator arranged to expand the usage model provided the by TL1 usage model generator into a fully meshed file. In particular, at a specific test level, the fully meshed file includes all possible transitions of a particular test component to any other test component, including itself, on that specific test level. Coupled to the translator, a TL1 sequence generator uses the fully meshed file to automatically generate a random sequence of TL1 commands that is provided to an execution engine configured to read the random sequence of TL1 commands. The execution engine, in turn, sends the random sequence of TL1 commands to the system under test (SUT) the results of which are forwarded to and written in a result data base used by a post processor to verify the validity of the system response.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be presented in more detail in the following specification of the invention and the accompanying figures that illustrate by way of example the principles of the invention.